Treadmills are presently utilized as advantageous means for performing vigorous exercise indoors or in confined areas and at a stationary position. Such treadmills are typically comprised of an elongated closed-loop belt supported by a plurality of rotatable rollers arranged at closely-spaced parallel intervals and being mounted in a freewheeling manner. In order to limit the linear speed of the belt, it is typical to provide a flywheel. The user operates a control on the treadmill rail to control speed. Only one known passive treadmill employs a governor which is both complicated and expensive. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a governor for treadmills and the like which is simple to use and having a simplified and yet rugged and reliable design to enable rapid adjustment of the treadmill linear speed. A suitable design to accomplish these objectives is set forth in copending application Ser. No. 517,079 filed July 25, 1983. This design however has been found to have certain disadvantages.
The governor assembly described in the aforementioned application utilizes a flexible blade-like member arranged to rotate about its center and provided at opposite ends thereof with a disk-shaped brake pad, for slidable engagement with a cooperating stationary annular surface. A second blade is arranged behind the first blade and secured to the first blade by spacer means. The pair of blades cooperate to provide a resilient flexible blade assembly. In operation, the blades have been found to resonant or vibrate causing irregularities in the governor assembly as well as an ineffective braking force.
A speedometer typically provided with the treadmill is mechanically secured to one of the rotating members for indicating the linear speed of the belt, imposing a drag upon the treadmill. Also, there is no means for compensating for irregularities of the treadmill belt.